Chapter Text
“Remind me why we took this job?” Echo stays crouched behind cover, waiting for Tech’s grenade to detonate before rolling and shooting his way a little closer to the terminal.
“Wrecker was hungry.” Crosshair drawled as he continued to shoot security droids.
“Hey, it’s not my fault we ran out of food!”
“It is if you ate all of it.” Tech deadpans.
“Cut the chatter. Omega, how many guards are left?”
“Four, left.” Echo resists the urge to glance where he knows she’s hidden next to Crosshair. The moment she gives her count a shot goes by that ricochets between the four human guards. “Make that no guards.” She sounded immensely pleased. Almost like she’d been the one to make the impossible happen, but only Crosshair could shoot like that. Echo smirks under his helmet, ducking from cover to take down a few droids of his own.
“Echo, are you at the terminal?”
“Almost. Tech?”
“All communications are still being blocked. You’re clear to go.” He takes a quick breathe and sprints to the terminal hidden in a small nook in the outer wall. It doesn’t offer much cover, so he needs to trust the others to watch his back while he works.
He plugs in and lets the wave of cold static run across his skin. The firewall is exactly what he’d been expecting. He’s already through the first few layers when Crosshair cuts in.
“Reinforcements are here. Two squads of security droids.” Echo tries to press in a little closer to the wall, hoping the new wave of guards doesn’t spot him right away.
“That’s nothing!” Wrecker is single handedly blocking an entire entrance to the square. Echo risks a glance his way and sees him pick up a small speeder and hurl it out of his line of sight.
“I’m nearly there.” He looks over his shoulder when one of Tech’s grenades detonates a little close for comfort.
The final barrier unlocks and streams of data starts flowing at the edges of his mind. Focused on the information they were hired for the fight starts to fade into the background until a shot barely misses him. Echo glances at the smoking hole behind him. It’s bigger than his fist and still burns red around the edges. He tightens his grip on his pistol, redoubling his efforts. Another round sails over his head and he opens his com line again. “Looks like they’re using incendiary rounds.”
“Copy that.” Hunter pants. While everyone else was covering Echo he’d been laying charges to cover their exit. Echo could tell he was sprinting his way back to them. “I’m almost there.”
“Tech, why am I seeing more droids?” Crosshair hisses over the line. The sniper was responsible for most of the ruined droids piling up around Echo, but if anymore reinforcements showed up even he wouldn’t be able to shield him.
“Echo, it appears the outpost has another line of communication.”
“Obviously.” Crosshair snarls between rapid shots. Each one hitting a droid before it can shoot Echo. He smiles under his helmet, looking forward to getting him alone once they were clear.
“It wouldn’t be a problem if Echo would hurry up.” Tech is taking cover behind a pillar near their exit. His attention split between covering Echo and keeping their path clear.
“Ease up. I’m almost-” he flinches when Wrecker shoots a small generator. The blast lights up the edges of his vision and he has to steady his breathing.
Two droids break through and start heading toward him. He shoots on instinct and misses the first shot, too distracted trying to detache from the terminal. Another incendiary blast goes straight over his head just as he shoots one of the droids in the chest. It doesn’t slow its advance until another precise hit from Crosshair knocks it down.
The other droid manages to fire one last shot before Crosshair hits it.
The shot goes right over him and directly hits the terminal. Echo’s jaw locks up as a current shoots up his arm, the implant on the back of his head nearly overloading with the surge of raw energy. There isn’t time to panic before the terminal detonates.
There’s a brilliant flash of light and Echo’s whole world turns white.
His eyes flutter open and all he can see is smoke above him. The stars are gone and so is the sensation in his arm and both of his legs. The armor protecting him is burning with the heat of the blast and something is sparking too close. The tremors in his arm won’t stop even as his fingers stretch out for his pistol. Desperate to grab that last line of defense.
Someone is yelling in his ear, but he can’t remember what the mission objective was. Need to secure a ship. Fives-
Movement out of the corner of his eye. Letting his head roll to the side, he can see Hunter with his back pressed against a pillar, waving at him to stay down. Echo doesn’t think he could move if he wanted to.
Another blast goes off and he can feel it vibrating down his spine. Echo takes in a sharp breath and his whole body tensing as he looks around him.
“Echo! Come on, reg. Answer your com. Echo, please say something.” Crosshair’s familiar voice is shaking, pleading with him and Echo hates it. Hates how afraid the sniper sounds. “Does someone have a visual? There’s too much smoke. I can’t-”
“I’ve got eyes on him. Echo can you come to me?” Hunter crouches down and sheathes his knife. He keeps his pistol ready in his other hand and waits for Echo to move.
Echo’s mouth is too dry to speak, so he nods to Hunter and awkwardly rolls to his stomach. The sparks follow him when he gets back to his knees. He wobbles back to his feet and tries to focus on Hunter. He almost tips to one side after a few steps. He tries to raise his scomp arm to balance and panics when nothing happens. Glancing down he realizes why he’d seen sparks.
“Hunter, what’s going on?”
“’S fine. I can-” he croaks into the line just before he drops to his knees again. Something is pressing against his chest and he can’t tell if he’s been hit. His breathing starts to pick up and he can’t get enough air.
“Echo, get down. I’ll come to you.” Echo crawls back to the blacked hole where the terminal had been and tries to make himself small in the limited cover. An explosion goes off on the other side of the complex and Echo starts to shake. His eyes snap shut and a metallic taste floods his mouth. He’s cut off from support in the middle of a firefight and the urge to hide, to run is close to overriding all his training.
“Hunter, I’ll clear you a path.” Crosshair’s voice has gone completely cold. The barrage of shots creates a wall between him and the droids. Hunter is there a second later wrapping an arm around his waist, forcing him back to his feet. Echo whimpers and tries to pull back to the corner. Hunter tightens his hold.
“Echo, can you hear me?” The voice in his ear sounds distant, pulling at him from somewhere far away. Another charge detonates and Echo can’t stop himself from flinching. “Come on, focus on me. I’m going to get you out of here, but I need you to walk. Come on.”
“I can’t. Hunter, I can’t.” He trembles, so violently Hunter curses and holds him even tighter. Echo can’t think past the memory of a different explosion. Waking up alone, abandoned on a cold table.
“Yes, you can. There’s nothing wrong with your legs. Come on,” Hunter doesn’t give him a chance to pull away. Dragging him out into the open again with an arm around Echo’s waist.
“Please, don’t leave me. I can’t go back-” Echo stumbles, trying to keep up with Hunter’s powerful strides.
“No one is getting left behind. Stay with me, Echo.” Hunter fires a few rounds over his shoulder and Echo thinks he should be shooting too, but his arm doesn’t raise. He looks down at his feet dragging useless as Hunter takes most of his weight.
Hunter has to be exhausted from his sprint, but he doesn’t ease up when they make it back out of the square and onto the path to their speeders. Another bolt hits the dirt in front of them, dust shooting up. They had a mission, but Echo couldn’t remember what it was. He knows they need to get away. A ship- they needed a ship. He raises his head, but the helmet next to him is the wrong color. The familiar blue and white has been replaced with black and red.
“Stay with me. We’re almost there.”
Hunter speaks directly into his comm again. “I’ve got him. You and Omega need to get moving. We’ll meet you back at the ship.”
“Not yet. Not until-”
“That wasn’t a suggestion. I have him. Now get going.” The noise of a Firepuncher rifle slows and cuts off.
“Copy that,” Omega finally reports in. “We’re moving now.”
Wrecker and Tech catch up to them, both shooting the few droids that hadn’t gone to investigate the explosion that Hunter had set up on the other side of the complex. Wrecker jumps onto a speeder and slides forward, leaving Echo space. Hunter pushes him on, prying Echo’s hand off his shoulder and guiding his arm around Wrecker instead.
“Try to hold on.” Wrecker yells over the wind when he takes off at full speed. Echo numbly hooks his fingers into a gap in his armor. Wrecker’s body completely shields him from the cold wind, but Echo can’t stop all of the tremors.
He doesn’t realize they’ve made it back to the ship until he hears Crosshair. “I’ve got him.”
Echo closes his eyes and lets his arm get pulled over Crosshair’s shoulder.
“Come on, reg. Let’s get you cleaned up.” Crosshair doesn’t give him time to stumble up the steps, his metal feet scraping the edges as he’s dragged onto the ship. Echo knows he should be trying to help, but he’s still having a hard time getting his body to cooperate.
Crosshair takes him straight to Tech’s messy workroom. Echo almost collapses on the workbench, but Crosshair keeps him upright. The whole ship is rocking and twisting while Tech tries to evade their pursuers long enough to hit hyperspace. Crosshair stands between Echo’s legs and uses one arm to keep Echo steady while the other locks onto the bench to keep himself upright. There’s a brief lull where Crosshair takes his helmet off and drops it to the side before finding the release on Echo’s. He shivers when the cool air of the ship reaches his sweating forehead. The smell of burning metal and fried circuitry is overwhelming without his helmet to filter the air. His breathing gets shallow again and he clutches onto Crosshair, burying his face into the familiar warmth.
“I need you to look at me.” Crosshair leans back and cups Echo’s cheek in one hand. Echo forces himself to smile past the nausea.
“I’m fine.”
“Do you know how you got here?” He was frowning as he held the back of his hand against Echo’s clammy forehead.
“It’s fine. I’m-”
“That’s not what I asked.” Crosshair curses when the ship takes a sharp turn and rocks with a few hits. His arm holding onto the bench flexes and he pulls Echo closer. It was an easy excuse to bury his face into Crosshair’s neck again. Long enough for him to strangle the urge to cry.
“I should’ve seen him.”
“Don’t do that.” Echo mumbled past the pressure in his throat. “Tech can fix this in his sleep.”
Crosshair sighs when the ship finally levels out. He lets go of the bench and runs his hand over back of Echo’s head, down to his neck where he starts kneading out some of the tension. Echo brings his hand up to Crosshair’s chest, matching his breathing to the steady rise and fall. He instinctively tries to wrap his other arm around him, to pull him even closer, to burn away the fear that he’s going to be torn away at any second and wake up in another lab, but he can’t feel any feedback. Even the sparks have died off, just a steady drip of fluid.
Crosshair lets go of the bench and starts running a hand over his side. “Did you get hit anywhere else?”
“I don’t think so.” Echo felt something wet against his ribs that Crosshair was running a hand over. He finally looks at what remained.
The blast had hit the terminal while he was still attached, severing most of the limb. The remaining six inches of metal was melted beyond repair. The ruined cylinder spilling out wires in a mix of reds and blues. A sick imitation of blood. The wet was coming from a hydraulic fluid hose.
He laughs weakly. It’s easy to ignore the chill running down his spine to his remaining fingers, but the nausea is making his head spin.
Crosshair holds him steady when he starts to sway. “Don’t worry. As soon as we’re clear Tech will get to work.”
“I just want to get it over with,” he mutters, keeping his eyes fixed on the skull on Crosshair’s armor. Crosshair cradles his cheek and tilts his head, so he can look at him.
“You don’t need to worry. I’ll take care of you.” Echo glances up and sees the determined glint in Crosshair’s eyes.
“Promise?” Echo is only half joking. The whole Batch knew that Echo had bad days, but Crosshair was the only one that knew any specifics. He knew Echo was still uncomfortable with his new body. That it didn’t always feel like it was his.
“I won’t let him sleep till it’s done.” He closes his eyes and lets his head drop back to Crosshair’s chest. Warm arms wrap around him while he practices breathing again. Running through his old mantras and reassurances. I’m okay. It’s just parts. They can be replaced. I’m fine. I can still be useful. I’m not getting decommissioned. I’m okay.